Onions 'Stuttgarter Giant' & 'Red Karmen' harvesting

13Aug2013

Partly Sunny21°C / 70°F

I harvested some of Gerry’s onions during this week – he has 3 varieties sown, all from sets, &, generally speaking, they haven’t done too bad at all. They weren’t watered as often as mine were but they have done quite well.

What I find interesting about growing different varieties, especially in the same bed & therefore receiving identical treatment, is the difference in performance & the final yield. He has ‘Red Karmen’, ‘Stuttgarter Giant’ & ‘Sturon’.

‘Red Karmen’ was the first to go over & I finished harvesting them this week. They made quite big bulbs though some were hardly bigger than the original sets!

‘Stuttgarter Giant’ has almost finished with around 3/4 of the bulbs lifted this week. ‘Giant’ is a bit of a misnomer as they weren’t nearly as big as you might have expected from the name!

Gerry’s ‘Sturon’ are not yet ready for lifting they probably need another week or two. Some of the bulbs are probably bigger than ‘Stuttgarter Giant’!

The half bed of ‘Sturon’ on my plot, the only ones I’ve grown this year, also from sets, have already been lifted but the whole bed has only had a few lifted so far. This it seems is a later maturing onion than the other two types we have grown.

Just a couple of days ago I bought a packet of onion seeds, ‘Ailsa Craig’. I intend to sow them at the end of the year. I’ve had good results from this onion in the past but I think I will sow them on my balcony this year to avoid problems with mice excavating them & leaving them to dry out on top of the compost, as happened a couple of years ago.